Rousseau's Bar New Orleans
3rd POV
Sophie is chopping vegetables at the restaurant, clearly upset. She turns around and is startled to see Klaus standing there. "You're Klaus."
Klaus smirks. "I am. And you're upset. Sophie, isn't it? I assume this is because of what I just witnessed with your sister on the corner of Royal and St. Ann?"
Sophie works more roughly in aggravation. "Did you enjoy the show?"
Klaus scoffed. "It was a little melodramatic for my tastes. What did your sister want with me? Why did Marcel kill her?"
Sophie opens her mouth to speak but then notices a few men arriving at the bar. "I see you brought friends."
Klaus turns and looks at the men, then back to Sophie. "They're not with me."
Sophie cleans her hands. "They're with Marcel. That's all that matters. I know you built this town, but this is his and his mother's town now. He killed my sister because she broke the rules. So I talk to you in front of them, I'm next."
Klaus's widen in surprise. "Excuse me, did you say his mother?"
Sophie nods. "Elizabeth. If you ask me, she is the nice one of the two."
Sophie turns and leaves. Klaus takes in the information he was just given. Lizzie is alive?
Shaking it out of his mind for the moment, he approaches the men at the bar and sinks his grip into their shoulders. "Are you two gentlemen following me?"
The first man is not phased. "Marcel said we're your guides."
Klaus smiles menacingly. "Oh, he did, did he?" The man nodded. "He did. Well then, let me be exceedingly clear about something...." He leans in. "If either of you follow me again, you'll do so without the benefit of a spine."
He tightens his grip until the bartender, Camille, approaches them. "Sorry for the wait. If you're here for the gumbo, I'm about to break your heart. We just ran out."
Klaus releases the men and places a 100-dollar bill on the bar with a smile to the blonde bartender. "Your oldest Scotch for my two friends here, love." She takes the bill, smiles, and walks away. Klaus resumes his hold on the men. "If Marcel wants to know what I'm up to, he can ask me himself." Klaus lets go of them roughly and leaves.
He looks up to find a familiar face staring back. Her brown eyes and sly smirk just as it was the night he last seen her.
Lizzie.
She nods for him to follow into the Quarter. He finds her standing next to the severely burnt opera house. He approached her and stood by her side, but said not a word.
Elizabeth's POV
We stood there for several moments, when I finally speak. "For almost 20 years, this is where I stood. Waiting, hoping, someday, one of you would return. Turn back and see if we had survived. Then, one day, I realized you never would. I moved on and built something from the ashes of that night. Yet almost 100 years later. Here you stand." I turn to him and he turns to face me.
After a moment, he finally spoke. "You survived. I just...."
My chuckle fills the air. "Can't believe it? I'm guessing a regular vampire wouldn't have survived, but you forget I'm part witch. I used my brain and made it look like he didn't miss." I go to walk, but I am suddenly embraced. Even though I should hate him, I missed my best friend.
His grip tightened when I hugged back. "Lizzie, it's really you. You're alive."
I laugh at him as I pull away. "You should know, you can't get rid of me that easily." My face turns serious. "How is..."
"Elijah?" I nod and he sighs. "He was devastated when I seen him after 1919. He will be overjoyed when he sees you're ali-"
"Niklaus! He must never know. Not until I'm ready. Promise me, you won't tell anyone!" He looks at me wearily. "Promise me, Nikki." After a heavy sigh, he agrees. "I must go. I have to have a few words with my son. Good bye for now." With that I sped off the Compound.
Hours later, the Compound is full of people drinking, dancing and generally having a good time.
Marcellus and I are watching over when I here Niklaus's voice in an argument. "Marcellus, handle that will you? I'm not in the mood and I have to remind your sister it's a school night." He nods and heads down to them, while I approach Lucia, taking the drink from her. "I would be considered a bad parent for letting you drink on a school night."
She scoffs. "I am in my 20s, Mom. I'm legal."
She reaches for the cup. "Nah, ah, ah. Not to human eyes you're not, now head on up to bed, you have school tomorrow." Grumbling, she heads to her room as I wave sarcastically with a smile to her and finish her drink.
Lafayette Cemetery
3rd POV
Some time later, Elijah leads Klaus into the cemetery. "What are we doing here?"
Not surprised by his brother's attitude, Elijah simply notions to his brother. "You wanna know what the witches have in store for you? Follow me."
They enter one of the mausoleums to find Sophie. Klaus looks to Sophie and demand answers. "Sophie Deveraux. What is this?"
Elijah motions to his brother. "He's all yours. Proceed."
Sophie looks to Klaus. "You know you're famous in this town? Witches tell bedtime stories about the powerful vampire Klaus. We know Marcel was nothing but an orphan street rat, until you made him what he is. And now he's out of control. He does what he wants, he kills who he wants. I'm gonna stop him, and you're gonna help me."
Klaus smiles, amused. "This is why you brought me here?"
Elijah sighs. "Hear her out."
"I don't need to hear her out. I assure you, love, there is not a thing on this earth that will matter enough for me to waste even thirty more seconds of my time. Elijah, what madness is this?"
Hayley, a werewolf girl, enters the mausoleum with a few others. "Klaus. You need to listen to them."
Klaus laughs in amusement. "You're all out of your minds if you think some liquor-fueled, one-night stand - no offense, sweetheart - means a thing to me."
Sophie, unamused, keeps talking. "Marcel may be able to keep up from practicing real magic in this town, but as keepers of the balance we still know when nature has cooked up something new. For example, I have a special gift...of sensing when a girl is pregnant."
All amusement leaves Klaus' face. "What?"
Hayley looks at Klaus understanding his shock. "I know it's impossible..."
"What are you saying?"
Elijah jumps in. "Niklaus...the girl is carrying your child."
Klaus shakes his head in denial. "No. It's impossible. Vampires cannot procreate."
Sophie steps forward. "But werewolves can. Magic made you a vampire, but you were born a werewolf. You're the Original hybrid, the first of your kind, and this pregnancy is one of nature's loopholes."
Klaus fights for control over his facial expression before he turns to Hayley and shouts at her. "You've been with someone else, admit it!"
Hayley stands her ground and yells back. "Hey, I've spent days held captive in a freaking alligator bayou because they think that I'm carrying some magical miracle baby. Don't you think I would've fessed up if it wasn't yours?"
Sophie steps between them. "My sister gave her life to perform the spell she needed to confirm this pregnancy. Because of Jane-Anne's sacrifice, the lives of this girl and her baby are now controlled by us." By their surprised expressions, this is news to Elijah and Hayley. "If you don't help us take down Marcel, so help me, Hayley won't live long enough to see her first maternity dress."
"Wait, what?" Hayley panicks.
Elijah growls in frustration. "Enough of this. If you want Marcel dead, he's dead. I'll do it myself."
Sophie stops him. "No. We can't, not yet. We have a clear plan that we need to follow, and there are rules."
Klaus, who had turned away, turns slowly to face Sophie, his anger barely restrained and his voice frighteningly quiet. "How dare you command me...[shouting] threaten me, with what you wrongfully perceive to be my weaknesses. I won't hear any more lies."
He moves to leave and Elijah stands in front of him. "Niklaus. Listen." Klaus turns toward Hayley, from whose abdomen he can hear a rapid heartbeat. Klaus listens in wonderment for a few long moments, meets Hayley's eyes, then closes himself off once more.
He turns back to Elijah. "Kill her and the baby. What do I care?" With that, he storms out of the mausoleum.
Shortly thereafter, he is walking down a deserted, but well-lit street when Elijah catches up with him. "Niklaus."
"It's a trick, Elijah."
"No, brother. It's gift. It's your chance-- it's our chance."
"To what?"
"To start over. Take back everything we lost, everything that was taken from us." A flash of pain fills Elijah's eyes, but quickly disappears. "Niklaus, our own parents came to despise us. Our family was ruined-- we were ruined. And since then, all that you have ever wanted-- all that we have ever wanted was a family."
"I will not be manipulated." Klaus turns away but Elijah vamp-speeds over to block his way. "So they're manipulating you. So what? With them, this girl and her child-- your child-- live."
"I'm gonna kill every last one of them."
He shoves Elijah and turns away but once again Elijah blocks him with a scoff. "And then what? Then you return to Mystic Falls to resume your life as the hated one, as the evil hybrid? Is it so important to you that people quake with fear at the sound of your name?"
"People quake with fear because I have the power to make them afraid. What will this child offer me? Will it guarantee me power?"
"Family is power, Niklaus. Love, loyalty-- that's power." Guilt flashes in Klaus's eyes as he remembers about Lizzie and his promise. "This is what we swore to one another a thousand years ago, before life tore away what little humanity you had left, before ego, before anger, before paranoia created in this person before me someone I can barely even recognize as my own brother. This is us, the Original family, and we remain together, always and forever. I am asking you to stay here. I will help you and I will stand by you. I will be your brother. We will build a home here together. So save this girl. Save your child." Elijah has placed a hand on Klaus's shoulder.
Klaus brings his own hand to Elijah's shoulder in a brotherly gesture. "No."
French Quarter Compound
Elizabeth's POV
Marcellus and I were enjoying the company of our kind, when Nikki comes in. Marcellus and I walk to him. "Hey, man. Where'd you run off to?"
Nik looks annoyed. "You mean your minions aren't still documenting my every move?"
Marcel frowns. "Someone put you in a mood. What can I do?"
"What you can do is you can tell me what this thing is you have with the witches."
I look at Marcel surprised as he sighs. "Oh, we're back to that?"
"Yeah, we're back to that."
"You know I owe you everything I got, but I'm afraid I have to draw the line on this one. This is my business. I control the witches in my town. Let's just leave it at that."
Nik and I both look at him and say in sync. "Your town?"
Marcel scoffs. "Damn straight."
Nik laughs. "That's funny, because when I left over a hundred years ago, you were just a pathetic little scrapper still trembling from the lashes of the whips of those who would keep you down, and now look at you. Master of your domain. Prince of the city." The music stops and the crowd watches us. "I'd like to know how."
Feeling the tension I step between them. "Boys..."
"Why? Jealous? Hey, man, I get it. Three hundred years ago, you helped build a backwater penal colony into something. You started it, but then you left. Actually, you ran from it. I saw it through." I clear my throat and he quickly changed his words. "We saw it through. Look around. Vampires rule this city now. We don't have to live in the shadows like rats. The locals know their place. They look the other way. We got rid of the werewolves. We even found a way to shut down the witches. The blood never stops flowing and the party never ends. You wanna pass on through? You wanna stay a while? Great. What's Ours is yours, but it is Ours. Our home, Our family, Our rules."
Nik gets a deadly look in his eyes and I make sure to keep them at a distance. "And if someone breaks those rules?"
Marcel smirks. "They die. Mercy is for the weak. You taught me that, too. And I'm not the prince of the Quarter, friend. [Shouting.] I'm the king! [Tensely.] Show me some respect!"
I quickly look to Nik. "Niklaus, stay calm. Don't do anything stupid."
Nik takes this all in for a few moments, then he vamp-speeds towards one of Marcel's friends, Thierry, bites him viciously in the neck, then drops him. My eyes widen. "No!"
Nik speaks with blood dripping from his lips. "Your friend will be dead by the weekend, which means I've broken one of your rules. And yet I cannot be killed. I am immortal. Who has the power now, friend?" The boys faces off while I'm stuck in shock. After a moment Klaus smiles around at the crowd. Once he gets to my face, his smile drops as he is met with anger and disappointment. Guilt flashes, but is gone in an instant. He turns and leaves.
There will be a part 3 up soon. In the middle of moving from Oklahoma to North Dakota.